Just to note, you can't legally buy OEM versions without a new machine, so with a new machine is your only window for the OEM vers.




Have a look at my guide, it is possible to get a lot from x86 if you tweak a bit.
I have 4gb ram (3.6GB accessible), currently running firefox, have 3.1GB free ram, and am able to access up to 3gb per app due to the /3GB switch (and having an nlite'd installation - do not attempt /3GB without a stripped nlite'd installation).
All depends on your needs and your apps.
If you need access to more than 3.6GB of ram total, win7 x64 (or xp x64).

Thanks for the info so far, I will do some more research first.

It just occurred to me though.

The Win 7 upgrade is not OEM but the XP install may have been. How do I tell from the XP install disc?

If XP is OEM, does that mean it won't work after a motherboard/cpu upgrade?

Also, would the Win 7 installation be classed as OEM if upgrading from an OEM version?

Questions, questions...

i just bought a new (2nd hand)win 7 64 bit laptop and i have to say the whole changeover (from xp)has been a bit stressfull, My main audio interface (novation x-station) no longer functions (just bursts of noise, tho drivers are supposed to be 64 bit compatible)asio4all works tho and my smaller m-audio interface, been getting a few crashes with ableton too.. it all looks nice and it is a faster machine for me but i'll be keeping my xp laptop just in case!
(oh and re-installing re-authorising everything .. what a freekin' pain!!)
sorry for the negative review.. thats just from my perspective

All opinions welcome

I guess if my XP is OEM and I can't change motheroard I will be forced into a change anyway. Maybe 32bit Win 7.

You can buy OEM as long as you buy it for a build which most shops allow you to buy OEM with just a hard drive purchase.

OEM XP allowed you as many installs and upgradeds as you liked as long as you keep the sticker on the same case and install on one computer at a time but they changed that with Win 7.

You can buy Win 7 OEM if you buy a hard drive or motherboard with it and then after install it is locked to that motherboard.

I installed the same Win XP OEM on two complete new builds this was fine with the licence as long as you dont have it on two computers at the same time.

The upgrade looked awkward to me so I baught Win 7 64bit home retail.

I found with Win 7 64bit that any software or hardware that had not been patched by the makers in a long time would not work with Win 7. This included Photoshop and some four year old games. If you're using an old version of a DAW and not the curent version you are taking a big risk.

My software is generally the latest version (apart from Sonar which I would not install again).

You won't have any performance hit going with 32-bit. It is just as snappy
and efficient as 64-bit. The exception being RAM. I doubt very much you will be
exceeding this limit - 3.2GB.


Win7 is ok. Just make sure you go with a non-Aero desktop - go for classic - it will save you many mpg.

In fact, Win7 is a right dog on the same hardware. It is a great, efficient and very nice OS. I have gone deep into Linux and always come back to this OS.
You use it coz you have to. Whether you use the 32-bit or 64-bit is pretty much academic. I use 64-bit and see no improvement at all. Actually, that may not be true. And I may not know what I am talking about. There are memory bandwidth enhancements. I haven't gone as far as measuring them. I think it is fair to say they are negligible at the end of the day.


For the hassle of compatibility you get, the 'performance enhancements' really aren't worth it. In 90 percent of cases. Stick with 32-bit if it is not a problem.

Please feel free to correct my devil's advocate post.
Be gentle!

I am edging towards staying with XP. As mentioned before, it is only the fact I could get 7 cheap on offer that made me consider it.

If you go 64 bit Windows 7, find out if the drivers are any good first. When I went from 32 bit XP to 64 bit 7, my audio interface driver took a serious dive, and there is no sign of Avid/M-Audio getting it together any time soon. I'm talking BSOD's, freezing, and mediocre performance when it is working. The usable buffer size has doubled, and the latency has more than doubled.

Thanks, my audio card is an M-Audio 2496.

if you use Win 7 32bit you could still have problems with software and gear working it's still a different OS. Also Win 7 uses up more ram so you will have less ram than Win XP if you install the Win 7 32bit version.

I think I've been talked in to staying with XP for now

OEM versions don't tie themselves to any PARTICULAR motherboard.
They'll just detect a change if you're using the installation then you use the same installation with a new computer.
But I haven't had any problems with that.

I'm not 100% sure how the licensing works with OEM XP, but you should just have to call up and give them the call-and-response code.




That limit is in place on some older versions of Vista, but not XP.
Your ram limit in XP is RAM - system resource addressing space. I have 3.6GB accessible.
But on modern machines this doesn't seem to be so much of a problem.
For example, I have a 800MB graphics card, and it's not eating into my address space. Not sure how that works but hoorah.




Do yourself a favour and use Nlite to strip, patch and configure your OS before you install.

It's so much easier to configure the OS the way you want it in nlite, rather than gravitating through 1-hundred-odd menus once it's installed.

Also you end up with a much smaller OS footprint, both in terms of HDD space, files, processes overhead and ram usage.

The install I use is a 300MB ISO, and has SP3 and all the after-sp3 updates rolled into it. You can find links in my guide (additional tips section, I think).

OEM Win 7 locked to your motherboard says so on Microsoft site.

Win 7 uses up more ram than XP when it loads so less ram left for software. You only have 3.5GB - 4GB to play with on any 32bit OS. Xp is limited to 3.5GB and 2GB per programe.

Sure they do. (tie themselves to a motherboard) Which is why one can't install the os to a swap drive or removeable media and just slip it into a different computer.

Without getting into too much detail the licence validation process my company uses relies on both hardware and harddrive profiles as well as other factors. The hardware identity is stored by ms and if ms knows the components used in assembling the product they can cater the os only to operate with that configuration. Harddrive numbers exist and hardware profiles exist.

This is exactly why many products that mac claims will work on VMware and parallels often fail. VMware and parallels generate a false harddrive identity that can change. Whereas bootcamp creates a true computer identity with os the permanent harddrive identity (which is linked to os and can change due to reformat/recover and the hardware configuration.